Arms impossible to build size

[bivk]

I have such a hard time building any size to my arms overall. The rest of my body is well sized except my arms are small as hell compared to my body. Wrists are small, and my biceps arent that big. I can't find any way to add some type of size to them even during my cycle. I have stretch marks from my chest to my bi's but I can't get a nice routine to build a size to my arms and wrist.

What do you guys think I should do to build some size?

 

[Micker]

Remember, triceps make up about 2/3 of your arms total mass. Big biceps are nice eye candy, but big tris are what make the shirts tight. Anyway, my arms are my best body part. Genetics are important for arms unfortunatly, but that doesn't mean you can't get big arms, you just might not get the nice bicep peak etc.. I focus(well did before starting my 5x5) a whole day on bicep/triceps. Don't work triceps the same day as bench, one will suffer.

The key to big arms is being able to focus on the muscle and let that muscle do most of the work. I am also big on cheating to get the last rep. Bend your back a little to finish that last curl if needed, or open up your elbows a bit for tri exercises. That last rep is what you work the whole set for don't puss out. Use heavy weights a lot. Doing 15 reps doesn't seem to work for me to build mass. I like the 4-8 rep range, more or less on light or heavy days. Also, you can superset some sets as you finish the bicep part, start your tricps right away. You will get a good arm pump.

My arm day was:

Biceps:
2-3 sets EZ-Curl bar curls. One set inside grip, one with the outer grip and maybe a third alternating. I do 21's no and then for a few workouts, they are painful though, but really gets the bi's pumped.

2 sets of Barbell curls. Barbell curls are real mass builders. Do heavy weights around 8 reps and less.

2 sets Standing Alternate Curls. I don't do these all the time, just when I want to change things up a bit. When you come up, rotate your hand clockwise, seems to help put more stress on the bi's.

2 sets Preacher Curls. Use the EZ-Curl bar and keep your elbows in or you will use your shoulders too much. You can widen you elbows a bit to help you complete the last rep if you aren't going to make it. I sometimes do these with dumbells instead to change things up. You can even hook up the preacher bench in front of a pulley(lat machine) and do concentration curls with the ez-curl attachment on the cable.

Concentration Curls. Sometimes I throw a couple sets in. Take a dumbell and sit on the bench. Put your elbow on the inside of your thigh and hold the dumbell palm out. Concentrate(hence the name) on contracting the bicep throught the movement and try to keep your body still.

Triceps:
I warm up doing tricep pushups(not sure of the name). Take a chair and put it about legs length away from the bench. Put your hands on the bench and feet on the chair. Dip down and come back up, like doing a dip. I put weight on my lap and do these till they burn, then I do some more!!

2-3 sets of Close Grip Benchpress. Put your hands about 12 inches or so apart on the BB. Keep your elbows in and bench the weight. Keep your mind on your triceps, its easy to let other muscles get involved in this exercise. Do fairly heavy weight, no more then 10 reps for first set. It will take time to learn the best way to do these without using too much chest or shoulders.

2 sets of Skull Crushers. Also known as forehead extensions. Take the EZ-Curl bar and lie on the bench. Keep your elbows in and lower the weight to just above your forehead and extend back up. Again, like all tricep exercises, make sure to squeeze the tri's and keep your mind focused on using the tri's only.

2 sets of Tricep Pressdowns. Use a lat machine and either the rope or V bar attachments. Stand close to the rope and keep you elbows in as you extend your arms down and complete the rep. You can change your arm position to work the different heads of the tri well(remember triceps have 3 heads, hence the name).

Dips. Some people do dips for chest, but I like to do them for triceps. By keeping your head up and body straight, you will focus on your triceps. If you lean foward and put your head down you will focus more on chest. Use a weighted dip belt and do a couple sets. Go up in weight when you can do 12 or so.

I will throw in some random exercises sometimes like dumbell kickbacks or overhead extensions, but they are more shaping exercises in my book.

As you can see, nothing magical. Just work hard and go to failure on every set. Careful not to overtrain. One of these workouts a week is probably about right. Remember you use tri's on bench day and biceps on back day also, so don't overdo it.

 

[Quadsweeps Sister]

Yeah, arms are hard to grow. Those damn little muscles take a lot of work to grow. I never really experienced a lot of arm growth until I broke biceps and triceps away from other bodyparts and trained them together on a seperate day.

Depending on whether you have a long or short bicep muscle, you may not have a high peak. Train the hell out of those arms and then not again until after the entire rotation of the rest of your workouts. Give them a rest, get your nutrition on par and you should hope to see some growth. Take care.
__________________
Mythicwrld

"We deceive ourselves when we fancy that only weakness needs support. Strength needs it far more."

Dial_tone on glass dildos..."They're not real glass, knucklehead. They're Pyrex like a glass baking dish. You'd have to be pumping that sucker 400mph to break that thing unless you've got a kung-fu grip coochie..."

 

[JL_204]

Get good at BB rows. Grow your back and your arms will follow.

 

[markshark]

its all genetics in my opinion, ive never had arm size. but i know that my arms built up more from doing exercises where theyre used as a secondary muscle, such as benching, pullups, rows and shoulder presses. thats me though.

 

[bignate73]

Bench
Overhead press
Rows
Pullups
Skulls and Pressdowns
the occasional Dips and Curls (maybe once a month!)

Keep em heavy, do direct arm work on upper body days. Forget the pump, forget the mind/muscle connection, just use good form and challenge yourself. Eat well and often. Train smart and more often. Ditch once a week splits.

 

[MsBeverlyHills]

Bench
Overhead press
Rows
Pullups
Skulls and Pressdowns
the occasional Dips and Curls (maybe once a month!)

Keep em heavy, do direct arm work on upper body days. Forget the pump, forget the mind/muscle connection, just use good form and challenge yourself. Eat well and often. Train smart and more often. Ditch once a week splits.

what he said. compound lifts hit arms much more so than specialized arm routines.

 

[NorgePrecision]

My arms started to get some action with some weighted dips. Those did wonders for my triceps and really filled out my arms nicely.

 

[GrandMaster]

for my tri's i did pushdowns,and extentions.
and they grew like bitches!!
my bi's dont do to well tho, but like micker said your tri's are 2/3's of your arm size,
plus for me... i can work my tri's for extended periods of time and with heavy weight... im addicted
naturally my bi's are lazy. but u have to eliminate the mental/muscle connection like bignate said,.. and u can literally do anything!

 

[perp69]

I have put over an inch on my arms with the 5x5 along with with everything else.

 

[JumpBallWinner]

I curled and curled with an EZ bar for years to start my arms workout. Then did tricep pushdowns on the cable machines. Got really strong at both.... but my arms never grew. Triceps responded alright, and got really really hard, but biceps never grew much.... arms were smaller than alot of people who couldn't do within 20lbs of what I was curling. Funny thing though, my forearms were always big.... actually bigger in diameter at the top than my biceps. Looked like a mini Popeye. Few months ago I was reading Arnolds book in the biceps section and noticed something he said about not letting your wrist bend inward when doing curls, or else you'll put all of the stress on you forearms and they'll grow while biceps never do. Light went off in my head. Then I talked to a guy in my gym, who probably has the best body in my gym, about arms.... because his are huge. I asked him when he trained biceps and triceps, because I never see him doing it. He said hardly ever. Told me that if he does train either, it's triceps after chest for not many sets, and biceps after back for not many sets, but to make sure I did chins. He also told me to dump the cable pressdowns and do lying skullcrushers and dips, and to dump the ez bar and use the regular BB bar for curls. So another light went off in my head. I split my tue bi/tri day up, added tri's to my monday chest day with a couple sets of cable pressdowns to get them tight, then three to four sets of skull crushers.... added back to tue bi workout, with back first and then just a few sets of straight bar curls (no more ez bar) making sure to keep my wrist from coming in and then some preacher curls to bring out my bottom bi's. Since doing this, my arms have finally caught up to the rest of my body. Last I measured, I've added about 1 inch to them in the couple months I've been doing this. One thing to note though. Your triceps will not be nearly as strong after you do heavy benching. It was discouring at first, but after seeing how much swollen and sore they were the next day, I knew it was alright. Your biceps will also be very weak after doing back. Don't worry about it. Do what you can and focus more on not letting your wrist bend inward at all. Bend it outward if you have to in order to make sure the biceps are doing all the work, and really focus hard on getting the majority of your reps with your elbows almost pinned to your sides. Like the other guy mentioned, cheat reps will help add mass also, but try to get a good amount of work with perfect form before resorting to the cheating method. Do a few sets of curls with the straight bar after your back workout and your biceps will be looking very upset. Then throw in some preacher curl, again focusing on perfect form. Give this a try, hope it helps.

 

[GrandMaster]

yea good shit jumpballwinner

when u bend your wrists your extremely limit the growth and targeting of the bi's/tri's
its all about proper form and technique
everyone wants to lift big to impress girls...etc
but u look stupid when your not doing it right, and look like your going to strain your back or other region.
if you have to life small weights for your bi's...like 25lb bumbell curls... then fuckin DO IT! dont pick up a 40 pounder and force yourself and bend your back and dip under the weight like you see ppl do, keep your form right, and dont worry about if u cant life alot, its better to do it right and get results, then do it wrong, show off, and be out for a few weeks

 

[musketeer]

Curl grip chins are probably the best bicep builders.

Triceps get blasted by doing push presses.

The best isolation exercises for these two bodyparts are incline dumbel curls and one arm overhead dumbel extensions.

 

[rbtrout]

Compound movements like already said. Any direct work should be more tri's than bi's.

 

[muscelove]

Dips
Pullups
Chinups
BB Rows
Bench
Shoulder press

My arm growth is a direct result of compound exercises. Ive seen guys who have never done a curl in their lives and they have massive arms purely from compound exercises

 

[suckamc44]

Get good at BB rows. Grow your back and your arms will follow.

I always had a hard time making gains in my biceps until I started doing a lot of heavy rowing then my biceps blew up. So yeah I agree with JL hit those rows.

 

[Q54321]

great posts and advice above. I've always had good arms, so I'm the last person you should listen too, but here is my 2 cents.

I train shoulders, tricpes and arms on the same day.

For triceps I like the close grip bench press (either flat or decline), and overhead cable extensions done with a rope. I'll also change up with curl bar extensions done in a seated postion. Either way I'll superset the OCE or curl bar seated overhead ext with bench dips.

I've always had a tough time feeling the biceps work. I finally figured out what works for me, and how I can feel them. I do reverse grip pulldowns focusing on tension and form, no body sway, just biceps as much as possible. Then I superset incline hammer curls (with a high incline focusing on keeping the elbows under or behind the shoulders) and barbell curls with teh straigh bar. I'll do a drop set of the barbell curls if my reps go too short.

I work on time under tension.

My arms get a great workout for me, and most importantly, my biceps feel it.

Like I said though, I've always had good arms, and for a while, they were great! So, i'd find someone with horrible genetics taht build great arms and follow their routine.

 

[c3bodybuilding]

For me nothing works better than some of Mike Mentzer's Heavy Duty principles. When I train arms I do static holds, rest pause, forced reps, slow negatives and then if I still feel I need a little more, I pick something like preachers and do one set of half reps with lot's of weight.

 

[kansasfarmman]

What do you guys think I should do to build some size?

Use basic compound movements and eat. It doesn't need to be more complicated than this!

 

[Singleton]

Compound work is great for overall size but did not help me much with biceps.

You can see in my avatar that the compounds worked well on my back but my biceps are not that big. My triceps did well with heavy benching, push presses, pullovers, though.

When I put more focus on direct bicep work and focused on supinating, creating peak tension by using drag curls and rope curls, I got good pumps in my biceps and they actually grew. My biceps are bigger now.

If you really hate doing direct bicep work and love compounds, cleans might work for you.

Compound work is great for overall size but if you have trouble with biceps, I would recommend doing something specific for them.

 

[ghettostudmuffin]

I have to agree with singleton.

Compound exercises are best for overall size and strength, but my biceps don;t respond to heavy weights really. I do weighted pullups, chinupsm and rows, plus I rock climb(bouldering, not long routes) andthey have gotten very strong, but haven't grown that much.

Every time I drop my ego and use 20's or 25's for dumbell curls or like 50-60lbs on barbell curls and do higher reps(12-15) they GROW fast.

I have a book by Dave Draper called Brother Iron/Sister Steel(great book) and he talks about how Arnold's arms grew best from lighter, high rep isolation exercises where he focused on getting a good brun and pump. Obviously he did lots of compound exercises, but for the most part he trained lighter weight relatively speaking for arms with the occasional heavy cheat curls.

I think it also depends on your fiber type in your biceps. Slow-twitch fibers can grow too and if you have a alot of them in your biceps then they may grow great off lighter weight and higher rep.

I remember blowing my forearms up to popeye proportions in high school by doing just barbell wrist curls for 2-3 sets 2-3 days a week. The key was the frequency, but more than that, my sets were 20-40 reps and I got an unbelievable burn and pump in the muscel and they GREW.

Just my experience with the subject.

 

[seizer]

I have to agree with singleton.

Compound exercises are best for overall size and strength, but my biceps don;t respond to heavy weights really. I do weighted pullups, chinupsm and rows, plus I rock climb(bouldering, not long routes) andthey have gotten very strong, but haven't grown that much.

Every time I drop my ego and use 20's or 25's for dumbell curls or like 50-60lbs on barbell curls and do higher reps(12-15) they GROW fast.

I have a book by Dave Draper called Brother Iron/Sister Steel(great book) and he talks about how Arnold's arms grew best from lighter, high rep isolation exercises where he focused on getting a good brun and pump. Obviously he did lots of compound exercises, but for the most part he trained lighter weight relatively speaking for arms with the occasional heavy cheat curls.

I think it also depends on your fiber type in your biceps. Slow-twitch fibers can grow too and if you have a alot of them in your biceps then they may grow great off lighter weight and higher rep.

I remember blowing my forearms up to popeye proportions in high school by doing just barbell wrist curls for 2-3 sets 2-3 days a week. The key was the frequency, but more than that, my sets were 20-40 reps and I got an unbelievable burn and pump in the muscel and they GREW.

Just my experience with the subject.

Im starting to believe this myself actually. I'm finding that the compound movements are great for areas like the back, chest, legs, core. But, when it comes to my arms, they are SERIOUSLY lagging. Like, I have only been training for about 1.5 - 2 years now so I suppose I cant expect to be huge, but I think I have a vague idea where I should be at with my body and my arms arent where they should be at. With that said, I think I might throw in some barbell curls into my next run at the 5x5, some high rep stuff maybe on mondays and fridays. People may continue to disagree and stress that compound movements do plenty...and I'm not gonna disagree with you folks, but there is no set formula for us all, so I'm gonna experiment a little bit this fall when I start to bulk.

 

[Slyder190]

My arms suck so bad that when I cycle, it's really about getting my arms bigger first and foremost.

 

[Q54321]

I have to agree with singleton.

Compound exercises are best for overall size and strength, but my biceps don;t respond to heavy weights really. I do weighted pullups, chinupsm and rows, plus I rock climb(bouldering, not long routes) andthey have gotten very strong, but haven't grown that much.

Every time I drop my ego and use 20's or 25's for dumbell curls or like 50-60lbs on barbell curls and do higher reps(12-15) they GROW fast.

I've heard these arguments before. I can't remember where, maybe venuto's TUT article somewhere on EF. TUT tends to be short on movements like curls where there is a small amount of movement, and teh reps tend to go very quickly. Unless your focusing on slow and controlled movements, your time under tension may be more in a strength range than a size range. I seem to remember that 20 seconds or so is in the strength range, and 40 seconds or so is the size range. doing lighter weight and higher reps has the tendancy to increase the TUT for smaller movements like biceps or calves. I'll see if I can find the article that discusses this.

from my personal experience with biceps, I train lighter weights and high reps with strict form. My time under tension can run as high as 60 seconds per set. I also do a lot of drop or super sets wich is another excellent way of controlling time under tension.

Just some thoughts, and everyone may not agree. It seems to be the best theory that fits what I feel works for me in the gym, at least for biceps and calves.

 

[Q54321]

I was wrong, I don't think it was from venuto. I believe it was from nelson's ebook. Here is the excerpt from the ad for the book. Anyways, i could be wrong, but this concept is what I mentally apply to explain why my biceps do better with lighter weights and higher reps producing great time under tension in the size building range.

TIME UNDER TENSION It May Be More Important Than Sets And Reps
The biggest factor in the process of muscle growth is often ignored. It's the amount of time in which your muscles are placed under tension. Some experts believe that's the only thing that matters. And they could very well be right.

Follow along for a moment. When lifting a weight, your muscle goes through a range of motion. Within each nano-inch of movement, hundreds of fibers come into play. After completing a set of, let's say, 10 reps -- each of your muscle fibers have been stressed for a specific amount of time.

Now, let's suppose that set took 30 seconds to complete. What difference would it make if you only did five reps, yet, the total time was still 30 seconds? Wouldn't all of your muscle fibers have received the same amount of stress? Even though the muscle contracted half as many times, the period where the fibers were stressed was twice as long. See where this is going? In this section, Nelson gives you the bottom line to maximize growth by increasing your muscle's "Time Under Tension"!

 

[anthrax]

I also have hard time building arms size

For me I can't get bigger arms if my overall weight doesn't increase as well

==> Eat more and train hard using compound movements and your arms will grow

 

[wallcrawler]

You might want to check your diet as well. Are you getting enough cals to grow the muscle?